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Rob Ford vows to sue, stuns city with oral sex comment

Mayor Rob Ford threatened to sue former staffers Thursday, but it was his reference to allegations of oral sex with a former staff member that sent shockwaves through the city.

In a scrum at city hall, Ford said he didn’t party with a prostitute, he didn’t snort cocaine, he didn’t take OxyContin and he plans on suing former staffers who told police he did.

“I might have had some drinks and driven which is absolutely wrong,” Toronto’s embattled mayor conceded in an impromptu scrum outside his office Thursday morning.

But it was his comments about allegations in court documents released Wednesday that he had claimed to have been intimate with former policy adviser Olivia Gondek that stunned reporters.

“It says I wanted to eat her pussy and I have never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I’m happily married and I’ve got more than enough to eat at home,” he said before heading up to council.

The mayor took aim at former staffers Isaac Ransom, George Christopoulos and Mark Towhey in particular, and said his unwillingness to speak before about the allegations contained in censored parts of police documents Wednesday was because he hadn’t yet read them.

“I’ve… never had a prostitute here. I’m very happily married at home, this is very disturbing against my wife,” Ford told reporters.

“I have no other choice. I’m the last one to take legal action, I can’t put up with it anymore.”

Although many councillors have stated repeatedly they are no longer surprised by the controversy surrounding the mayor, his comments Thursday morning clearly left some of them taken aback.

Denzil Minnan-Wong said Ford has “crossed a line” and “no apology” will suffice.

“Every day he lowers the bar,” Minnan-Wong said. “I am exceedingly angry at the mayor.”

Minnan-Wong went on to say that the mayor needs to quit.

“This is beyond taking a leave of absence, this mayor needs to resign,” said Minnan-Wong, a former long-time ally of the mayor, who brought the largely symbolic motion Wednesday to council asking Ford to take a leave of absence and cooperate with a police investigation.

Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly told reporters after the announcement that city hall will start to “regroup.”

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“He’s not moving, apparently, and so you have to move,” Kelly said. “You have to rely on the good will and the common sense of members of council starting with the executive.”

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said he and Towhey both tried unsuccessfully to get the mayor help from addictions to drugs and alcohol a year ago, but the mayor “said he didn’t have a problem and not to worry about it.”

It is time, Mammoliti said, that Ford and his family recognize he has an issue.

“Now he’s probably going to lose everything — probably his family, probably his job — all of it, because he’s not recognizing his illness,” Mammoliti said.

But Councillor Janet Davis told reporters that Ford’s comments were “repugnant and distasteful and were not acceptable for any elected official.

“They were degrading to a former staff person (and) his own wife,” Davis said. “It was disgusting.

“I want this man to stop talking, go away and let this city get on with repairing its reputation,” Davis said. “I think the veneer has finally come off Mayor Rob Ford. You’re now seeing the real Rob Ford. This is a guy who’s kept this locker room side of him in check and it’s now becoming clear.”

If Ford follows through on his plans to file a lawsuit, he will face an uphill battle, according to media lawyer Iain MacKinnon.

“Anything is possible when it comes to Ford, but any lawsuit on that basis would be doomed to fail,” MacKinnon said. “The staffers would have an excellent defence of qualified privilege.

“The idea is that society wants to encourage people to speak honestly and candidly in certain situations when they have a legal or moral duty to talk. Giving statements to police during a police investigation is one such occasion.”

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